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Dokument imqiegħed fuq il-Mejda tal-Kamra tad-Deputati fis-Seduta Numru 31 tad-19 ta’ Ottubru 2017 mill-Onor. Claudette Buttigieg, MP.

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Rans;id homophobia in blog run by the Prime Minister's Office - Daphne Canmna Galizia's Note... Page 1 of 3 UDDI•

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• Featured Posts Rancid homophobia in blog run by the Prime Minister's Office

« back to home Published: June 13, 2016 at 12:31 pm

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Andrew Borg Cardona hns raised a very im129nant noint beneath Mark Anthony Falzon's column in The Sunday Times. It is reproduced below.

I had meant to write about it myself, but he beat me to it. One of the most obvious things about the posts and comments on the website run by the Prime Minister's state-paid aide and travelling companion is how homophobic they are.

They are homophobic to a degree that you would expect among the worst sort of far-right trailer trash rednecks, or very backward Maltese villagers 40 years ago. They are toxic, revolting and reveal the worst sort '" of contempt for gay men - and significantly, it is only men.

Back in the general election campaign, I had written that the 's much-vaunted progressive and liberal support for 'gay rights' was false and opportunistic, because beneath the thin glaze, the simmering, fetid mass remained, and still remains, of people who think of gay men as 'pufti'.

Some weeks ago, The Sunday Times columnist Petra Caruana Dingli wrote about the vicious misogyny manifested in the website run out of the Prime Minister's Office, by his aide Bedingfield. The two- misogyny and homophobia- are interlinked and invariably, where you find one you will also find the other. They are the '" sentiments of the far right and the backward Mediterranean village, and you will generally find a third factor linked in with them: xenophobia.

https:/I daphnecaruanagalizia.com/20 16/06/82870/ 19/10/2017 Rans;id homophobia in blog run by the Prime Minister's Office -Daphne Caruana Galizia's Note... Page 2 of 3

Arldrew ~;.Cardooo a This piece, with which I am essentially agreement, does not highlight a highly oosavoury .aspect of the Prime r~iinister's a.ide's blog., which he produces with the evident approval of the Prime Minister.

the b!og itself, and wit!-). more venom the comments a!fowed to appear under various posts, there are thinly-veiled attac!(S on individuals who are gay or, even worse, are insulted and made subject to homphobic insinuations for being gay, or even if they are not, whlch is not particularly material to my point Minister Helena usually eager to show credentials the of promoting minority rights and tolerance, has not, far a pretty obvious reason, go on record condemning this vile form of attempted intimidation. a is also disappointing, to say the !east, that the organisations that seek to promote tolerance and equality of rights, have liKewise not gone on record to condemn the blogger and his methods.

The blog is. an exercise of freedom of expression, it is an abuse of it With the clear objective of cowing anyone who dares raise hi.s or tread above the pa.rape:t submission and s!!.ence. it is Ineffectual achieving this aim is hardly relevant State and whose chosen form of action is approved of by the Pmne Minister, acts this manner is, however, very relevant It ~s evidence beyond shadow of a doubt that the of true democracy continue to e.scape our Government.

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https ://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/20 16/06/8287 0/ 19/10/2017 This morning in comi: the misogyny has to be heard to be believed - Daphne Camana Galizia's Page 1 of3

This morning in court: the misogyny has to be heard to be believed

(( buck to home Published: February 23,2017 at 5:21pm

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Whenever 1 listen to Labour Party apparatchiks, politicians, cabinet ministers and -this morning -legal counsel to the Labour Party/govenunent rant and rave against me, I always ask myself the same thing.

"Would they be saying this, in this tone and with this attitude, would they be saying these things specifically, ifl were a man?"

And the answer is invariably, "No". Before you listen to the words of what they say, pick up on the tone: it seethes with savage hatred and anger, with contempt, and above all, with extreme irritation that a woman not only opens her mouth without stroking egos (or something else), but then won't shut up.

The simmering rage beneath their words is the kind that all women who live in fear of their husbands, women who get hit, women who tiptoe around the house trying to keep the peace, immediately recognise.

This afternoon I faced three archetypal Maltese misogynists in court: the Economy Minister and his EU Presidency policy aide, who objectify women and treat them with contempt, and Joe Gerada, and their legal counsel, Pawlu Lia, who, when I hear him rant on about me in court, makes me think ofn prosecutor before the Inquisition Tribunal or at the Salem witch trials.

The essence of his arguments against me in court has, over the long years, inevitably been the same· "This evil woman is bad for society, dangerous to its senior male members, and must be put to death."

It wasn't any different this morning. At one point I had to leave the courtroom because I couldn't stand to hear any more of the vitriolic stream of nastiness, uncontrolled hatred and lies. Pawlu Lia looked and sounded like he regretted this is the 21st century and he can't have me tortured to death in some Inquisitorial dungeon.

At one point, when he was raging on about how evil and bad I am, he turned to his client Cardona, who looked all swollen as though he'd spent the night knocking it back, and said, his tone switching: instantly to that of a greasy lackey: "Do you mind if I mention it?"

"Of course not," the womanising barfly said.

Lia then launched into a rehearsed spiel about how I am causing: major distress to the Economy Minister's children even as they study for their exams (apparently, exams are a big thing in primary school), how cruel and nasty and terrible this witch is & c & c.

This is where I walked out, unable to stomach the revolting hypocrisy, the chauvinism, the misogyny, the freaky lies, the abuse and injustice. Malta is fttll of narcissistic men who are completely oblivious to the effects their own behaviour has on their children (forget their wives) and who instead blame everyone else. This was just one too many,

On my way out of the courtroom I did something I shouldn't have, because l should have waited until the hearing was over and said it to the Economy Minister outside instead. But they were the pits, and I felt anger for the hundreds, if not thousands, of women and children who have had to su!fer at the hands of awful men like those.

"I'm the one who harms your client's children?" I said loudly to Pawlu Lia on my way out. "Which set of children anyway? Your client has cheated on two wives and was thrown out, sleeps around and is harming his own children."

It sounds better in the original Maltese.

After I'd calmed down and gone back in, I was met with the sound ofLia describing how a bad woman who lies in bed with an iPad and writes about people is not a journalist. You can see the mindset woman= housewife= nothing to do all day= stays in bed with iPad =gossiping about people.

Or, let's cut to the chase: woman= bed.

I sat as far away from him as possible, and asked myself the usual question: Would he be discussing or describing a man in the same way? No, of course not

"Mario Frendo joqghod fis-sodda bl-iPadjikteb fuq in-nies."

I have never written anything in bed in my life (l couldn't even if I wanted to, because I touch-type), and I don't own an iPad (ditto). But I do wonder what sort of women these dreadful men have been accustomed to in their lives, that they should have such disturbing contempt for our gender.

https :II daphnecaruanagalizia.com/20 17/02/morning -court-misogyny-heard-believed/ 19/10/2017 This morning in court: the misogyny has to be heard to be believed - Daphne Caruana Galizia's ... Page 2 of3

lmngine sharing a home with this man and vexing him by not doing exactly as he says, or daring to protest because he has spent yet another night bar-crawling while you're at home witll

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https:/I daplmecaruanagalizia.com/20 17 /02/morning -court-misogyny-heard-believed/ 19/10/2017 .iberal and progressive party that hates and fears the women who shame it- Daphne Caruana... Page 1 of 3

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• Featured Posts The liberal and progressive party that hates and fears the women who shame it

« back to home Published: April!!, 2017 at 3:58pm

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Ah, now that Marlene Farrugia has formally allied herself to the Nationalist Party and says that they have a common objective of ousting Muscat and his crooks, the Prime Minister's Office and its Labour propaganda machine have immediately got into gear with their time-honoured, standard response of using unflattering photographs of any woman they fear.

Because that is so very liberal and progressive. All it does is manifest their all-too-real 18th-century-Mediterranean-village misogyny.

https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/20 17/04/liberal-progressive-party -hates-fears-outspoken-wom... 19/10/2017 Tht: liberal and progressive party that hates and fears the women who shame it- Daphne Caruana... Page 2 of 3

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https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/20 17 /04/liberal-progressive-party-hates-fears-outspoken-wom... 19/10/2017 No; Joseph Muscat. Daphne did not criticise you: she accused you. - Manuel Delia Page I of 5

No, Joseph Muscat. Daphne did not criticise you: she accused you.

October 19, 2017

(/#facebook) (/#twitter) (/#linkedin) (/#email) (/#whatsapp) (https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fmanueldelia.com% 2F2017%2F10%2Fno-joseph-muscat-daphne-not-criticise-accused% 2F&title=No%2C%20Joseph%20Muscat.%20Daphne%20did%20not% 20criticise%20you%3A%20she%20accused%20you.)

Joseph Muscat is indulging in his classic newspeak.

He is spinning this story like the rapist who pleads to the judge "but her skirt

was very short". H<

He told Christiane Amanpour on CNN, Daphne Caruana Galizia was "a harsh critic of (his)". He then repeated that line in Parliament.

He is seeking absolution in the only court he cares about, public opinion, by pleading helplessness in the face of the harshness of Daphne Caruana Galizia's criticism. He is manipulating his enthusiastically gullible audience that it's the victim's fault.

Conveniently she is no longer here to call him out though he is probably surprised to find her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, is just as strong and fierce as his mother was.

No, Joseph Muscat, Daphne Caruana Galizia did not criticise you. That's what rootballtommehtators·do:

She accused you.

She accused you of corruption. Of harbouring and protecting corrupt people. She acccused your wife of graft. She accused you of patronising the amoralisation of the state. She accused you of deception, deceit and of prestidigitation in the running of our country. She accused you of siphoning http://manueldelia.com/20 17/1 0/no-joseph-muscat-daphne-not -criticise-accused/ 19/10/2017 No, Joseph Muscat. Daphne did not criticise you: she accused you. -Manuel Delia Page 2 of 5 our tax money to the corrupt regime of I\ ham Aliyev. She accused you of covering for one of your ministers as he got caught in a brothel and abused the powers of the state to exert revenge on her.

And now you want to use a million euro of our tax money in order to cover up the assassination of the woman who accused of pocketing many more millions at our expense.

You are a crook. This is not a criticism, harsh or otherwise. This is an accusation.

Get out. Now.

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